Disaster Relief

By implementing a few best practices, you can breathe new life into sustained giver programs for your relief organization so you’re better prepared to leap into action when the next event occurs.

Two Baton Rouge, La., residents have helped establish the Center for Disaster Philanthropy, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit that advises donors on how best to help in disasters.

Lori J. Bertman, Irene W. and C.B. Pennington Foundation president and chief executive officer; Baton Rouge Area Foundation President and Chief Executive Officer John Davies; and Arabella Advisors Managing Director Eric Kessler co-founded the center. Bertman will serve as the Center’s inaugural chairman.

Here, a look at case studies on Stop Hunger Now's Haiti Relief campaign and the Salvation Army's annual Red Kettle Drive.

The American Red Cross has committed an additional $3.6 million to underwrite operating expenses at Hospital Bernard Mevs Project Medishare Critical Care Trauma and Rehabilitation Program in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. This increases the total funding of the hospital to $8.6 million since the earthquake struck. The funding will support services until December 2012.

When wildfires hit Central Texas, donors opened their wallets to help survivors by giving more than $3.8 million in cash.

The donations ended up mostly in the hands of six nonprofit organizations and church groups, led by the Austin Community Foundation with $1.2 million. The groups began distributing some of that money immediately after the fires began Labor Day weekend.

The majority of the donations, however, will go toward long-term relief for hundreds of residents in Bastrop and Travis counties.

International aid agencies warn they are running short of money and supplies to help millions of people affected by floods in Pakistan.

The statement was issued on Wednesday by the United Nations and several other aid groups, including Oxfam, Save the Children, Care and ACTED.

The U.N. says it has only raised $96.5 million of the $357 million six-month appeal it issued in September. It says relief supplies will run out in weeks without more money.

Sean Penn's Haiti relief charity has been given a boost after receiving a $2.25 million grant from officials at the World Bank to help victims of the devastating 2010 earthquake. Penn's J/P Haitian Relief Organization will use the money to repair homes, assist more than 500 needy families, and build solar-powered water kiosks, according to the Associated Press.

Canadians have donated $35.8 million to famine relief in East Africa as time runs down on the government's commitment to match donations.

The current total is as of Sept. 2, with two weeks left in the matching period, a government official said.

The federal government has pledged to match donations to eligible charities until Sept. 16 as Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia grapple with the worst drought in 60 years.

The IKEA Foundation is donating $62 million over three years to expand the world’s largest refugee complex in Dadaab, Kenya, the U.N. refugee agency announced Tuesday. U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres, in a statement, called it the largest private donation in the agency’s 60-year history, enough to help up to 120,000 people fleeing a crisis that “continues to deepen with thousands of people fleeing Somalia every week.”

Companies like UPS and Wal-Mart are teaching trade crafts to aid workers so they can deliver food and shelter to famine victims more quickly and cheaply, saving money and ultimately more lives.

When World Food Programme Executive Director Josette Sheeran visited hunger sites in Kenya and Somalia last month, she brought Peter Bakker, former chief executive of transportation company TNT and current U.N. ambassador against hunger. Bakker is helping rally businesses to provide support for those affected by the drought and famine in the Horn of Africa.